15 mins
Not Too Tricky
serves 2
About the recipe
Sardines are the perfect tinned fish – oily, delicious and so full of flavour! They’re fast-growing and quick to reproduce, and tinning them preserves them throughout the year, meaning stocks only need to be fished outside of the mating season. The sardines I’ve used here are caught in the cool North Atlantic waters, and there’s an incredible fishery in Newlyn, Cornwall, that’s passionate about delivering a top-notch product with minimum impact on the ocean and fish stocks. The sustainability key is that the sardines are attracted to light, so the boat goes out after dark and uses lights to attract the fish towards the surface – the benefits of this technique are that only sardines are caught, and no damage is done to the sea floor.
Ingredients
150g dried spaghetti
2 x 120g tins of Fish Tales sardine fillets in olive oil
1 pinch of dried red chilli flakes
1 lemon
1 teaspoon baby capers
1 clove of garlic
3 sun-dried tomatoes in oil
1 large courgette
½ a bunch of flat-leaf parsley (15g)
Method
- Cook the spaghetti in a large pan of boiling salted water according to the packet instructions, then drain, reserving a mugful of starchy cooking water.
- Place a large frying pan on a medium heat and drizzle in the oil from the sardine tins. Add the chilli flakes, finely grate in half the lemon zest, then add the capers.
- Peel the garlic, then finely slice with the sun-dried tomatoes and add to the pan.
- Using a speed-peeler, peel thin slices of courgette into the pan, then season to perfection with sea salt and black pepper.
- Pick the parsley leaves and put aside, then finely chop and add the stalks to the pan and cook for 5 minutes, stirring regularly.
- Lay the sardines in between the courgette, cover and cook for a final 5 minutes. Meanwhile, finely chop the parsley leaves.
- Tip the drained spaghetti into the courgette pan, add the parsley leaves and toss together gently, loosening with splashes of cooking water to create a silky sauce. Divide between bowls and serve with the remaining lemon cut into wedges for squeezing over.
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